Beta’s Have Award Winning Summer

by Jeremy Sexton '07

August 26, 2005

One of Wabash’s fraternities was granted two awards this summer.

The Beta Theta Pi’s Tau chapter at Wabash College won the Francis H. Sisson Award and the Charles Henry Hardin Leadership Development Award at the Fraternity’s 166th General Convention in Scottsdale, Arizona.

The Sisson Award is given to a select few chapters whose eligibility is based on several different areas ranging from scholarship and philanthropy to alumni affairs and public relations.

In order to be eligible for the Hardin Leadership award a chapter must attend a minimum of 15 participants or 20 percent of its second semester roster to fraternity council activity, participating in a minimum of three different experiences.

Over the summer, members ranging from freshmen to seniors attended various leadership council retreats, which include The Institute for Men of Principle, Beta Wilderness challenge, Undergraduate Interfraternity Institute, Chapter Presidents Leadership Academy, and the Leadership College. Altogether more than 15 men attended the meetings sending them across the country from Arizona, Utah, to Washington.

"It’s not necessarily the awards we’re shooting for, but it definitely reflects the direction we going," said Beta president Josh Owens ’07. "It’s also a great way to refocus yourself and reflect upon what you are doing here at college."

Owens and the rest of the members of Beta Theta Pi are anticipating an eventful school year hoping to get this year’s incoming freshmen class involved in similar activities.

"Making sure we start from the ground up is something we are extremely focused on," Owens said. "It not only promotes taking pride in the house and what they do, but it also promotes them to get involved on campus."

Beta Theta Pi was founded in 1839 at Miami of Ohio University. They are dedicated to building men of principle for a principled life through lifelong devotion to intellectual experience.